Potatoes

The humble Potato, originally from South America, I think Peru and Bolivia, a wild tuber that was cultivated and domesticated over a large area to become the world’s fourth largest food crop. It has become a main staple in America and Europe, and has around 5000 varieties worldwide. The plant itself is highly toxic, containing high levels of glycoalkaloids, the actual potato itself must always be cooked before eating, and if the potato is green, it has not fully grown and should not be used.

I’m going to do this as though you have no idea what to do with a potato, because everyone has different degree’s of ability and knowledge. I recently worked with a young girl of eighteen years old, and she had no idea of how a mop worked, and I had to show her. Unbelievable! The other girl, who was, I think, nineteen had that weekend, stripped down and rebuilt a 50cc moped engine. Swings and roundabouts, as they say.

Cooking the potato is quite a simple thing really, but has more potential that one would first think. It can be cooked with or without the skin (the skin has high amounts of fibre). You can boil them, you can bake them, shallow or deep fry, even microwave. A very versatile vegetable, I’ll give you some ideas

Peeled and quartered, dropped into a large pan of salted water, served plain, buttered or covered with gravy as part of a meal.

Boiled potatoes can be oiled and roasted for roast potatoes, or if your short on time simply drop them into the deep fryer for a quicker result.

You can peel and cut into batons of various thickness for chips (fries), once cut, blanch off in boiling water (don’t fully cook them, only boil halfway, and finish off in the oil), when blanching, then deep frying, the chips (fries) wont turn brown due to over cooking.

To make crisps (potato chips) you need only slice very thinly, and deep fry. I find using a peeler or a mandolin will get them very thin and faster to cook. Simply flavour with seasoning or a crushed stock cube. Salt, pepper and smoked paprika works well, served with a burger or hot-dog.

You can oven roast them whole for a baked potato, I find it quicker if they go into the microwave for four minutes, turn them over, and mic again for another four minutes, and repeat until they soften (time will depend on potato size and how many are being cooked) I usually remove, oil, then season the skin and cook in the halogen oven (or regular oven) to finish them off, and also get a crispy skin. Eat with a filling and a garnish or as I enjoy them, plenty or butter and black pepper, and some bread and butter. I usually do a batch of four to six, and the can sit in the fridge for three or four days, or can go into the freezer for up to three months.

In addition to the baked potato, there is the Hasselback potato, which is a baked potato that has been sliced into before cooking. I would advise doing these in the oven and not the microwave, and be warned, that they take about an hour to cook, but they do look good on the plate, and you can also cook in batches. If you have the patience, small Hasselback topped with sour cream and chives are a good addition to a buffet.

The potato can also be mashed. Mashed potato has many uses, as well as being an excellent accompaniment to a meal. Boil the potatoes until fully cooked, drain away the water and break them down with a fork. The key to good mash is to remove as much fluid and moisture as possible. Any potato can be used, but the firmer the potato with a lower water density will produce better results. I tend to use king Edwards or maris piper, as the are good all-rounders.

I usually turn the heat on the stove right down and mash the potatoes in the pan on the stove, helping to dry them out as I mash, adding milk and butter as needed, and finally seasoning.

Mash will store in the fridge for a couple of days, and will also freeze once cooled. Bag in microwavable bags for individual portions, if cooking in bulk. Can be used for topping a cottage pie, thickening a soup, making croquettes, add chives or spring onion for champ mash, bubble n squeak, fish cakes, potato cakes, veggie burgers, kids meals, hash browns, blinis, etc, etc. 

 

If you peel, then dice your potato, and boil the cubes, you can use them for American potato hash, mixed with chives and corned beef, topped with a fried egg. Also there is hotch potch, which is simply diced potato mixed with chopped onion, peppers, mushroom, chives , parsley, pretty much anything you want really, all thrown together in a large frying pan or wok, and flashed off like you would a stir fry.

You could also Dauphinoise, which, to be honest, there are loads of different recipes for this dish, and a load of different ways to do it. You can use nutmeg, anchovies, Gruyère, garlic, rosemary, thyme, etc. I’ll give you the basics here.

Warm the oven. I like to infuse the milk first, so I put the milk into the oven dish with a large knob of butter and seasoning, and maybe garlic or a sprig of rosemary and put it in the oven as it warms.

The key ingredient, the blessed potato is sliced, with a mandolin or food processor, and you’ll want around five large potatoes (I use maris piper) for a decent batch and slice a large onion and mix with potatoes. Absolutely do not wash the sliced potato, as you need the starch to make this dish work.

Remove anything you have put in the milk to infuse, and layer the potato and onion in the dish of milk, so they overlap, keep layering until you have a decent thickness, top with a little cheese, Gruyère or even some parmesan. Some people like to cover with something heavy to squash down the layered potato, I personally don’t bother. Cook on a low to medium heat (around 150C) for about one to one and a half hours

Test if the potatoes are cooked with a small sharp knife by piercing with the tip

I have already mentioned bubble n squeak, but there are some ideas you may not have come across before, such as papas rellenas or Bauernfrühstück (pronounced bowern froo schtuck)

One I like to make, is Hungarian potato cakes, a common one this, but it requires a box grater. When you buy a box grater there are, obviously, four sides, the main is the large grater, and there is the fine grater, and usually the other two sides are the slicer, for slicing cheese for burgers or sandwiches, and the final side is a lethal looking side which is a zester for lemons. If you take four or five potatoes and one large onion, and grate them with the zester you get a sort of potato and onion mush or puree. What ever you do, be very careful when doing this, and don’t grate right to the last bit of potato or you with lose a fingertip, seriously, don’t worry about throwing a few pieces into the bin.

The resulting puree of potato and onion, needs to be seasoned, and maybe add some other bits, such as herbs, paprika, garlic and onion powder, etc. and you simply fry spoonfuls of this mix in a frying pan with just a little oil to make small pancakes. I serve with a spicy tomato sauce and sausages, or chicken, but they work with anything, just think of them like a savoury waffle.

Cepelinai is a sort of potato dumpling from Lithuania, very similar to Swedish kroppkaka, where you basically have a meat filled potato dumpling covered with a mushroom or mustard sauce.

There is a bit of a technique to the stuffing so I would recommend finding a YouTube video for this one.

I would recommend trying this out small scale first, and you will need either a food processor or that lethal zester again. So, take four potatoes of equal size. Peel them and put them into a pot of cold water. What you want to do is cut up two of the potatoes and boil them and they will be mashed, the other two will be grated or processed raw and mixed into the cooked mashed potato

The procedure for the raw potato is, to take a large bowl and line it with a muslin cloth or clean tea-towel, and grate or process the potatoes into the bowl, then use the tea-towel to squeeze out as much liquid from the grated potatoes as possible. The raw potato can then be mixed into the mashed potato. The bowl of liquid that is left over should be allowed to stand for a couple of minutes. The starch will fall to the bottom, allowing the liquid to be poured off and discarded. The leftover starch can now go into the potato mix. Also add a grated onion to the mix, and mix it altogether.

All you need now is a filling. Minced beef, bacon, sausage meat, mushrooms, quorn, literally anything you fancy.

So lets say your going to do minced beef, there are two techniques to the filling bit. Take a handful of the potato mix and form into the shape of either a beefburger pattie or an American football (rugby ball). Take a lump of the filling and place on top of the pattie then fold and form into the zeppelin shape or, if you choose the other, open the football of potato dough like a hot dog bun and insert the filling into it, then form into the zeppelin shape. The end result will be a zeppelin shaped, meat filled, potato dumpling called a cepelinai (which is Lithuanian for zeppelin)

Now you need to boil them for about twenty minutes. I usually do a sauce for this, which is gravy, cream, bit of white wine, cap of brandy and a dessert spoon of wholegrain mustard and about a teaspoon of honey. Bring to the boil and then drop the heat and reduce for about three to five minutes.

I have had a look around and have found a step by step for this one

http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/lithuaniannoodles/ss/How-to-Make-Lithuanian-Cepelinai-Zeppelin-Dumplings.htm

Papas Rellenas is similar to zeppelins, but less work to make. The method I used was to make them small and breadcrumb them, which made storage and cooking them easier than making large ones. So start with boiling a couple of large potatoes and make a fine mash. Season, but don’t add any milk or butter, this mix needs to be quite stiff. You will also need a filling. I kept it simple and mixed minced beef with corned beef and mixed herbs (I had about half a pound of mince left over so did a dry fry to cook it off, when it cooled, I mixed with the tinned corned beef and mixed dried herbs)

Basically I made a large golf ball of mash, opened it and filled with a couple of spoonfuls of meat filling, sealed it up, dipped in beaten egg and rolled in breadcrumb. On a tray and into the fridge for about twenty minutes before cooking, the egg seals everything up when you drop them into the fryer. If you want to make your own breadcrumb, drop some stale bread into the food processor.

Bauernfrühstück is a German dish, according to Wikipedia translates as Farmers Breakfast, but I happen to know this is a popular dish eaten all-day, Basically all this is, is scrambled egg with bacon, sausage, onion, leeks, pretty much what you fancy. It’s served up like a broken omelette.

Clapshot is a Scottish Dish, basically it’s Neeps n Tatties. It’s when you mash together potatoes and swede, sometimes onion or spring onion is added. Quite simple really. There are variations on this, such as colcannon, kailkenny, bubble n squeak and rumbledethumps, mixing veg with potatoes and either baking or frying to make a meal from leftovers.

Potato Gnocci is a type of pasta, easy to make, a very simple dish, you can add cheese or herbs, but its usually best plain. Take a few starchy potatoes with a low water content, maris piper in my case, and boil them with the skin on. The theory is that the potato will soak less water during the boil and will retain its flavour. Boil for about 20 minutes, drain and allow to cool, when cooled, the skin will become loose, and easy to remove, when the skin has been removed, mash in a bowl with something that will remove all lumps, such as a dinner fork. If you have a ricer, even better. You want a dry powdery potato that can be tipped onto a chopping board or clean counter, and you want to add flour to the potato. However much potato you have, add about half the amount of flour. Make a small well in the middle and crack an egg into the middle and start mixing everything together with your hands. The resulting dough should be sectioned up into manageable pieces, and roll each piece into a long thin sausage shape then chop into small nuggets. Keep using flour to stop everything from sticking together. Use a large tray to catch the nuggets, and simply drop into boiling salted water to cook for around three or four minutes. Serve with a sauce and parmesan.

Think I’ll finish with a snack. Dead simple this one. Take a potato and slice it into one centimetre or half inch slices, and part boil for about three or four minutes. Let the slice cool a little, so they can be handled, and flour them then dip in batter and deep fry. Voila! Potato fritters

great dipped in BBQ sauce.